Matea Folprecht, Jordan Koch

Women’s sport is shaped by a persistent paradox: female athletes are celebrated for athletic performance while simultaneously expected to conform to dominant cultural ideals of beauty and body image (BI). Research in physical cultural studies shows that female athletes experience BI pressures produced through the intersection of performance demands and appearance norms. However, research focusing specifically on high‑performance female tennis players (FTPs) remains limited and largely quantitative. As a result, little is known about how discourses and institutional practices shape these athletes’ embodied experiences. This qualitative study addresses this gap by examining the socio‑cultural and institutional pressures influencing BI among high‑performance FTPs. Conducted in partnership with Tennis Québec, the study draws on semi‑structured interviews with eight athletes who have competed at the provincial, national, or international levels. Using Foucauldian discourse analysis, preliminary results indicate that coaching practices, training environments, and institutional norms produce dominant “truths” about the female athletic body. These truths reinforce ongoing processes of surveillance, normalization, and self‑regulation within high‑performance tennis, ultimately revealing the ways in which athletes navigate competing expectations to embody both athletic functionality and culturally idealized femininity. Furthermore, key findings validate that participants often internalize BI concerns as individual responsibilities rather than as outcomes of institutional practices and norms. By situating athletes’ narratives within broader relations of power, this study offers a contextualized understanding of BI in high‑performance women’s tennis and highlights the role of sport institutions in shaping gendered body ideals and the embodied experience within elite sport contexts.